Jag Panzer's Lost Album "Chain of Command"

If "Chain of Command" was released in 1987, as it should have been, it would have been their second album. According to Wikipedia,

Swedish born drummer Rikard Stjernquist was added to the line-up and the band proceeded to record the follow-up to their critically acclaimed first LP [Ample Destruction]. The album was recorded in late 1987 but never got an official release. The story has it that the band was offered a record deal by a major label, but turned it down. The never released album, which came to be known as "Chain of Command" was in fact bootlegged more than once, becoming a smash on the underground metal community. The shelved master tapes of the album made it clear that the band had run its course. They called it a day in 1988, and it would be quite a while before anyone would hear anything from the Colorado headbangers.

Jag Panzer reunited in 1994 and are still around today.

In 2004, Jag Panzer's label, Century Media, decided to release Chain of Command, which had a run of only 5000 copies. I picked up a copy in 2006 in Amsterdam. Much to my surprise I already knew the songs on most of the album, since pretty much every song had been subsequently rerecorded.

The album sounds drastically different from all other Jag Panzer albums (save for 1994's Dissident Agressor) since the vocals were done by Bob Parduba instead of Harry Conklin. Parduba has a much different style than Conklin; Parduba is a competant singer in his own right, but doesn't do the powerful, soaring high vocals that I associate with Jag Panzer.

What makes Chain of Command a strange listen is that pretty much all the songs (or at least the good songs) have since been rerecorded with Harry Conklin and put on subsequent albums, all of which I owned prior to getting Chain of Command. Here is the track list:

1. "Prelude" - Reappears on The Age of Mastery, combined with "Chain of Command"
2. "Chain of Command" - Reappears on The Age of Mastery
3. "Shadow Thief" - Reappears on The Fourth Judgement
4. "She Waits"
5. "Ride Through the Storm"
6. "In a Gadda da Vida" (Iron Butterfly cover)
7. "Never Surrender" - Retitled "Viper" on The Age of Mastery
8. "Burning Heart" - Reappears on The Age of Mastery
9. "Sworn to Silence" - Reappears on The Age of Mastery
10. "Dream Theme"
11. "Gavotte in D"

(Age of Mastery's "Take This Pain Away" and "Lustful and Free" were from Jag Panzer's 1986 EP "Shadow Thief")

So in conclusion, Chain of Command is good and all, but you don't really need it if you already have Age of Mastery. You're not exactly missing much, unless you're really into Jag Panzer or hate Harry Conklin.